Great News: People Love to Buy

I read something interesting in a Harvard Business Review article written by Edward Bursk:

“The act of buying gives the normal person a sense of pleasure. There is a certain feeling of power in being able to acquire things, entirely apart from any anticipation of enjoying the products or services bought. Buying flatters the ego. Certainly vanity is involved particularly when a person thinks he is buying wisely and shrewdly.”

These findings are similarly supported in such books as Buy-ology by Martin Lindstrom and Why We Buy by Paco Underhill. There is something pleasing and gratifying in making a purchase, and the more significant the purchase the greater the potential for joy.

What is most intriguing to me is where the article goes next:

Most sales professionals do not appreciate the strength of this primary desire to buy. They are inclined to be obsessed by the fact that people do not seem to buy eagerly and without hesitation, and they are accustomed to thinking in terms of prodding people to buy principally on the merits of the products and services that they sell. Consequently, they do not give enough attention to eliminating deterrents and thus unleashing the buying urge.

The most compelling example in the homebuilding industry comes from salespeople who walk their customers through their homes with all the joy and energy of an accountant explaining an IRS form. With little passion in their approach, they are literally forcing the customers to create their own exuberance to purchase.

Please – I beg you – get excited about the opportunity, and share that with your customers. As the sale progresses, the enthusiasm should also increase. The customer deserves the right to be emotionally engaged in the process.

Change your attitude, and change their world!